Ryan Reaves leaned into a pair of right-handed punches and didn’t miss. Kyle Clifford’s face was in the perfect, miserable position of absorbing both blows at full force, and the rookie forward was sent hurtling backward to the ice.

Looking dazed and confused, Clifford skated toward the Kings’ bench, left down the tunnel and didn’t return to the game.

His teammates were already somewhere else. How else to explain the Kings’ 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday at Staples Center?

“We had nothing going on,” Kings head coach Terry Murray said. “There was no energy. We were totally outplayed.”

The final score only started to hint at the offensive struggles of a club that was being outshot 24-3 at one point in the second period.

Jaroslav Halak had an easy time picking up his fifth shutout of the season, as the Kings were outshot 39-17 for the game.

The Blues (32-30-9, 73 points) had lost two straight and were coming off a 2-1 loss the night before in Anaheim.

For the Kings (40-26-5, 85 points), who fell two points behind the Phoenix Coyotes into fifth place in the Western Conference, it was a classic “trap game” following their perfect 4-0 trip.

“Coming off a big road trip – a lot of energy, lot of excitement – to come back and play a team that’s technically still alive but maybe on their last gasp, we just came out flat,” Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi said. “Right from the get-go. Every single guy. The only guy who probably was ready to go was Quickie.”

Jonathan Quick (35 saves) managed to keep the game close for a while, but his teammates’ ineptitude proved contagious when he allowed a pair of soft goals in the third period.

Even by then, the game had begun to slip away. The announced crowd of 18,118 at Staples Center seemed to sense it, booing the Kings off the ice when the second period ended.

That left an impression on Murray, who called it “the most embarrassing thing I have ever been through.”

“That’s the worst I have ever been through in all the years I’ve been coaching,” he continued. “I’ve been behind the bench almost 3,000 hockey games in the NHL and booed off the ice by your own fans – at the end of the second period after we’ve been through here, after this road trip, going 4-0 in hard places. Very disappointing.”

Few would argue the Kings didn’t deserve it; even Scuderi confessed that “we were completely outplayed for two periods.”

Within minutes after their first power play expired, at 16:30 of the first period, the Blues took advantage of a long rebound directed by Quick into the high slot. Matt D’Agostini’s second-chance shot was strong enough to reach the back of the net after deflecting off Quick’s left leg pad, the first of his two goals of the game.

Clifford’s night ended with his abbreviated fight with Reaves 24 seconds later. The team announced only he suffered an “upper-body” injury, but a concussion seemed like a reasonable possibility based on Clifford’s dizzied reaction.

“Knowing Cliff, I’m sure he wanted to come back into the game,” Scuderi said, “but I know what the new protocol is that we’ve all seen the last couple of days – it’s probably the right move. If there’s any shred of a doubt that he’s not 100 percent, there’s no sense in bringing him back. It’s a dangerous game to be playing with your head.”

Adding insult to injury, the Kings barely sustained any offensive-zone time, usually settling for one chance against Halak before quietly heading back the other way.

D’Agostini padded the St. Louis lead with a bad-angle shot past Quick with 6.9 seconds left in the second period.

The Blues’ last two goals were even worse.

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo had just crossed the center red line when he rocketed a slapshot into the upper-left corner of the net. Quick was still shaded toward the middle of the crease, his weak shrug as the puck sailed past only exacerbating an inexcusable goal. T.J. Oshie provided the final score with 7:21 left on a soft backhander toward the net from the left faceoff circle.

The Kings host the Ducks – who fell two spots Thursday to 10 th in the West without playing a game – in a critical rivalry game Saturday.

Give the edge in momentum to the team from Orange County.

“We’re going to put it behind us,” Kings forward Ryan Smyth said. “We’ve got 11 games left and we’re in control of our own destiny.”

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